Katie unlocked the front door and pushed it open. John walked in and Katie pointed to the nearby staircase. "Let's take these up to my room and then I'll get started on dinner. How do you feel about spaghetti and meat sauce?"
"That sounds great!" John would have eaten glass if Katie served it, but he did enjoy Italian food and was looking forward to sharing a meal with Katie. "Do you have any wine to go with it? Want me to run out and get some?"
"Oh, no need," Katie replied. "I've got some. Nothing fancy though. I'm no sommelier and to me a $10 bottle of pinot noir tastes like a $50 bottle."
John agreed. "Yeah, I hear ya."
They entered Katie's bedroom. It was fairly plain with white walls and nothing more than a mirror hung on the back of the door. "Pardon the mess," Katie apologized while kicking some laundry under her bed. "I've been busy lately and haven't had time to clean. Even though we've been here a year, I still haven't really decorated...other than these curtains."
John looked at the blackout curtains beside the window. "They look nice." He put her bags on the foot of her bed.
Katie put her bags next to them. She reached in and pulled out a yellowed piece of paper. It looked like it was typed on an old typewriter decades ago. She read the top line out loud. "Instructions." She glanced over the page quietly for a moment.
John glanced over and peeked into a bag. He saw the feathered headbands and silk gloves in one. He pulled out a headband and looked at the feathers which were long and black. They curved backward from a point on the headband where they were held on with a large imitation pearl and jewel decoration of some sort. He adjusted the feathers with his fingers to fix any parts that got mussed up in the bag.
After skimming the instructions, Katie chuckled. "Get a load of this." She held the paper so that John could see, but he was distracted with the headband. "'Congratulations on your purchase of enchanted clothing.' Enchanted? Is that a brand name?" Katie asked before continuing on. "'Please be aware that the clothing you have purchased has been enchanted with powerful magic to present your best self for the item(s) you have selected.' Magic? This looks like it was typed up a long time ago. Boy, people would believe anything back then. 'You will discover the new you by wearing these items. After removing the items, effects of the magic will remain for as long as the item was worn at which time the wearer will revert to their original form.' What even does that mean?" she asked to no response. "Then down here it says, 'Caution! Damage to the item may cancel any or all magical effects. The magic which is removed by damage may vary based on the type and amount of damage to the clothing. Hand wash only in warm water with mild soap. Do not iron. Do not machine wash. Do not dry clean.' Well, at least it makes me look good because these washing instructions are a pain in the ass, right?" She looked over at John.
John had placed the headband on his head and looked at Katie. "What do you think?" He saw Katie react with a shocked look on her face. "What?"
Katie stood stunned for a moment. "What the hell happened?"
John got worried. "Huh? The headband? I'm sorry, I was just being silly. I'll take it off."
"No, not that!" Katie exclaimed. "Your face. Your hair. You're a woman!"
John scrunched up his face in disbelief. "What? No..." He thought Katie was kidding around, but walked over and looked at the full length mirror on the back of her door. When he saw his reflection, his eyes opened wide...and so did the eyes of the person in his reflection. Staring back at him was a woman with relatively short hair, but longer than his own. It was the same color as his own hair, but styled in 1920's finger waves like he had seen in photos from a century ago. He walked closer to the mirror. Everything below his chin looked like himself, but it was as if someone with excellent Photoshop or Deep Fake skills had put a woman's head on his body.
Now standing a foot from the mirror, John gently ran his masculine fingers across his thinner eyebrows, felt his long thick lashes, touched his thin, dainty nose, and ran his fingers around his new jawline. He reached back with a hand and ran his fingers through his hair and even tried tugging on a bit to verify for himself that it wasn't a wig. "What. The. Fuck."
"Wow, your head looks like it was taken right out of some old photo of a flapper." Katie glanced back and forth between John and his reflection and moved around to his other side to get the complete view. She reached up and pushed part of his hair up to see it attached to his head. She looked up at the feathered headband. "It must be the headband that did this."
"Ugh!" John reached up and quickly lifted the headband off his head and handed it to Katie. He looked back in the mirror. "I'm not changing back!"
"The instructions said that the magical effect would last for as long as you wore the item, so give it a minute."
John sighed and stared at himself in the mirror waiting for any sign of a change.